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Boulder County precinct outcomes map shows pockets of support for GOP office-seekers

By John FryarLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
11/17/2012 07:55:38 PM MST

Updated:
11/17/2012 07:57:16 PM MST

LONGMONT -- Democratic candidates continued to prevail in most Boulder County election contests this year, but Republicans maintained footholds in some pockets of northeast Boulder County.

The latest and still-unofficial post-election counts from the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Hillary Hall's elections staff show that Democrat Barack Obama was the choice of nearly 70 percent of Boulder County residents voting in the 2012 presidential contest. Republican Mitt Romney got about 28 percent of the Boulder County votes cast.

Romney, however, appears to have won as many as 15 of Boulder County's 234 precincts, according to unofficial preliminary tallies the county clerk's office posted on Nov. 7, the day after the election.

Longmont Precinct election results

Pending final official results expected to be published later this week, Romney may turn out to have been the victor in eight of Longmont's 55 precincts as well as in seven other precincts in unincorporated northeast Boulder County neighborhoods outside Longmont.

The Boulder County clerk's preliminary tallies show that most of the Longmont pockets of Romney wins came in precincts on the city's north, northeast and eastern edges, although he also appeared to have captured majorities in a couple of westside precincts, as well.

The GOP candidate's strongest showings of rural Boulder County support, according to the county clerk's Nov. 7 counts, were in a pair of precincts immediately north of Longmont, although he also appears to have been the choice of a majority of Boulder County residents voting in one of the precincts west of Longmont, three precincts southwest of Longmont and one precinct stretching from outside southern Longmont east of U.S. Highway 287.

Longmont Republican Women president Peg Cage, whose north-of-Longmont Precinct 708 was one of those won by Romney, said the northeast Boulder County precincts that supported Romney and other GOP candidates signals opportunities for the party and its candidates in future elections.

Cage said she and many of her neighbors "in what I like to call the upper right corner of the county" voted for the Republican presidential candidate because "I think we're a lot closer to the ground, to the earth ... We run our businesses, and we understand economics. We know about the law. We understand the Constitution is there to protect our life, our liberty and our property."

Cage predicted that people in parts of the county won by Obama, even if they personally voted for the incumbent Democratic president , will vote differently in 2016 "once they realize that they've been lied to, and I really think they have been, by our president."

Longmont Area Democrats president John Bigger said he's particularly pleased that a majority of voters citywide supported Obama and Longmont congressional candidate Brandon Shaffer, even if Shaffer lost his bid to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, in the overall tallies in Colorado's 4th Congressional District contest.

That, and the majority of Longmont voters' ballots cast for Democratic candidates for other offices up for election this year, "makes me proud and underscores the changing face of Longmont," Bigger said.

Bigger said that when he moved here 20 years ago, "there was no way we could have seen these results." But he said Longmont has changed politically and is continuing to be "a changing city in terms of its demographics," including "other folks who have moved here from other parts of the county, the state and the country."

The latest unofficial results posted by the Colorado Secretary of State's Office for the 4th Congressional District race show Gardner getting 59 percent of the votes cast in the 4th CD, with Shaffer supported by 37 percent. The 4th District extends into Longmont and a pair of Boulder County precincts to the city's north, a northeast county area where the latest results from the county clerk's office report that Shaffer got nearly 57 percent of the votes, and Gardner 38 percent.

The Boulder County clerk's unofficial preliminary Nov. 7 election reports show, however, that Shaffer didn't collect majorities of the votes cast in several of those Boulder County precincts. Gardner won in the two rural Boulder County precincts north of Longmont -- the same two northernmost county precincts where Republican Romney beat Democrat Obama -- as well as in six of the 55 precincts inside Shaffer's home city. Republicans Gardner and Romney both won the majorities of votes cast in five of the inside-Longmont precincts, while Democrat Shaffer won three precincts where majorities had picked the Republican presidential contender.

Louisville Democrat Matt Jones, meanwhile, won election to eastern Boulder County's state Senate District 17 seat, defeating Longmont Republican Charlie Plagainos and Longmont Libertarian Ken Bray in their contest to represent a legislative district stretching from Louisville, Lafayette and the Boulder County portion of Erie on the south to Longmont on the north.

While Plagainos lost, he did win majorities of the votes counted as of Nov. 7 from eight of Senate District 17 precincts, including six of Longmont's precincts. Romney also won five of the eastern Boulder County precincts where voters picked Plagainos over Jones. Democrat Obama and Republican Plagainos shared victories in three precincts, while Republican Romney and Democrat Jones shared wins in four precincts.

Cage said she and fellow Boulder County Republican activists intend to keep pushing their candidates and causes in what's currently a Democratic-dominated county because "you don't give up when you're right."

Bigger said that partisanship aside, "overall, I am pleased with the voter turnout" this year. "That transcends party lines, ideologies. Longmont has become a strong political force in the state, regardless of the way it votes."

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